The Arsacid Empire (ca. 247 BC - 224 CE)
The Arsacid dynasty was founded when the nomadic Parni tribe crowned Arsaces I king in modern Turkmenistan. Arsaces I led his horseback-mounted troops from their steppe homeland into northeastern Iran, where he took advantage of an ongoing local rebellion against the Seleucids and secured the satrapy of Parthia. After several generations of struggle against the dominant Seleucid kings, Arsaces I's descendants finally overpowered them and conquered most of Iran and Mesopotamia by the mid-2nd century BC. The Seleucids, already decimated by civil wars and toxic court politics, were essentially relegated to a small domain in Syria, and the Arsacids thus became the new hegemonic power in the ancient Near East.
Unlike the Achaemenid and later Sasanian dynasties, the Arsacids ruled in the style of steppe nomads. Their language, Parthian, diverges from the Middle Persian that was spoken by their southern cousins, and reliance on horsemanship and archery bore more resemblance to practices on the steppe than the standing armies of the Middle East. Still, they embraced the same cosmopolitanism of their predecessors, rebranding themselves as both the Hellenized successors to the Seleucids, and to a lesser extent, revivors of Iran's imperial legacy. Moreover, the Arsacids ran a decentralized empire, choosing to oversee a long list of satrapies, vassal kingdoms, and semi-independent client states. As such, many existing Hellenistic cultural trends remained in place, with Arsacid vassals from across their territory retaining the artistic, religious, and governmental styles of the imported Greek and Macedonian aristocracy. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and other religious communities thrived as well. During this time, alongside Zoroastrianism, popular practice in many regions embraced a hybrid pantheon of Greek, Near Eastern, and Iranian deities.
One of the distinctive legacies of the Arsacid period is the Parthian art style. Known today primarily from palace décor and royal coins, it featured sharp linear and angular designs -- contrasting with the rounded, motion-infused representations of Greek art -- as well as “Parthian frontality,” in which figures were depicted looking forward with their eyes fixed on the viewer. This style was widely popularized, and could be found in local painting, sculpture, and engraving traditions across the empire.
The Arsacids’ decentralized approach was always somewhat risky. Over time, the lesser kings who had been vassals or clients of the Arsacid court gradually gained enough power to claim independence. In the early 3rd century CE, the Sasanians of Pars in southern Iran – the historical homeland of the Achaemenids – rose up in rebellion and ended Arsacid rule.
